Lots of Rain and Being Forced to Grow Up

What's up guys? I'm being transferred. I'm not gonna tell you where yet though because that's the bait to actually open the email. I've got loooots to report this week so I'm just gonna jump right into it.

I've bragged a lot about Gjirokaster in the past and it's for good reason. To prove it is all I say it is, President Burdon actually came down to visit with his family when they flew in to see him. Because he came down here, we got to all have dinner together and the AP's stayed over at our place. Super fun actually because our AP's are some of the dopest missionaries out there. Anyways, after talking to them and spending the evening with them back in the house, we discovered that we were having a relatively significant transfer happening this coming week and that transfer calls were on Thursday. This is when I began to get scared.

FLASH FORWARD to Thursday. It was THANKSGIVING! Flipping love Thanksgiving. It is arguably in my top 3 holidays. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet up with our district in Vlore (might be the last time I'm there for a while :(((...) and have a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone prepared different dishes and we got to sit and just eat after having a great district council, discussing what we're grateful for, listening to good music, etc. It was already pretty much one of the best moments of my mission so far, and then after we finished stuffing ourselves we decided to play around the world ping-pong. That took things to a whole new level. Ping-pong might be the Celestial sport not even gonna lie. Super fun evening there and a very good bonding experience with the district but little did I know that it was my last time with all of them together. 

At around 8 or so we left for Fier with the Elders on our way back to their apartment to stay the night. I was actually on the phone with my family (since it was a holiday) when I got a notification that I had just missed a call from a certain someone. I was filled with the adrenaline and dread known only to those who have ever served a mission and received a transfer call. After calling President Burdon back, I discovered that I indeed am leaving Gjirokaster and will be transferred to the city of Elbasan to serve as a Zone Leader! Quite the unexpected call. I'm a little bummed to not finish training my guy Elder Cannon but that's alright. An Elder from my MTC group is actually coming down to finish his training and he's a boss so all will definitely go well there. I've also been asked to stay in relatively close contact with them as ZL too just to help them get started off well in the best area known to mankind so I'm still almost gonna be serving here. It's nice to be serving as ZL of the same zone though because it actually gives me the opportunity to come back to Gjirokaster for exchanges. It's a very hard corner of the mission to reach and I'm lucky enough to be serving in one of the few areas where it is possible to get down there. Blessed.

Since Thursday, we have been pounding the work here trying to get things in good shape for Elder Snider. I've been calling through a bunch of old contacts, the last week and I believe there is definitely some promise there. Elder Snider will have to be the one to follow up on those unfortunately because first thing tomorrow I'm on my way to Elbasan. We had some good stuff go on this weekend though including having 3 people come to family home evening (a big deal I'm not even joking) and then having a church attendance of 7! (an even BIGGER deal!) It was the ideal weekend to end my service down here.

It has been a lot harder than I expected saying goodbye to all of the people down here. We have a very small teaching pool (and I mean VERY small) so it's hard to stay busy, but what ends up happening as a result is that you get really close with the people you do meet with. I have grown really close to a select few people here in the 4 months I've served here in Gjirokaster and that makes it tough (especially since it's such a remote place on the mission and there's a chance that even with exchanges I won't see them again). On top of all that, this place is absolutely beautiful. The castle on top of the city with the old fortified stone houses lining the mountain is a sight that still takes my breath away. I have found that at difficult times, all I have to do is look out the window of our apartment or walk through this small city and it's pretty easy to find deep gratitude regardless of what's going on in the work. I am really gonna miss these mountains that surround the city and the amazing workouts I've been getting walking up this mountain every other day. I've made some amazing memories here. 

Even with all that being said, I really am very excited to serve in Elbasan. I've only heard good things and there are a lot of benefits that Gjirokaster just doesn't have. First off, THERES A CHAPEL. That's a big one. Second, we have sisters in our area which is sure to spice things up haha we love them. Third, there's actually a good branch there with really awesome and good active members that I'll get to interact with. Fourth, I'll be able to learn Albanian again from more experienced missionaries than myself because I've literally just been learning the last transfer on my own talking to people (which lowkey worked surprisingly well but I still need help). Fifth, it's way closer to a lot of areas so I'll be able to meet up with people on P-Day much more often which is dope. There are definitely more benefits as well but these are the main ones for me. :))

Speaking of P-Day, Elder Cannon and I are just chilling here in Gjirokaster again. As I type this, it is dumping so much rain that we can't see out our window and all you can hear is the rain hitting the cement roof above us. Craziest part is that 10 minutes ago we thought it was gonna clear up for a bit because the sun came out... Sad stuff. Anyways, we are going to explore this beautiful city one last time in this pouring rain and probably just enjoy some father and son time together before I leave the kid forever. By the time I send this email out I'll probably have some good pictures for you all in the album.

I love you guys! I'll let you know how Elbasan is!

Photos

Life on the Road

The goal is to make this email a little bit less boring than the last one so let me know how I do. Swipe up, comment below, drop a like, and leave me some feedback. Love you guys haha thanks for putting up with me.

Not really sure where to start for this week. We were all over the place. First off, we only actually spent 3 days in our area this week due to zone conference and some new travel rules. To sum it up, we now need to generally drive only in daylight, and we aren't allowed to drive as far on P-Day anymore. What this meant is that even though zone conference was on Wednesday, we ended up staying in Fier Monday night after P-Day (because it has now been deemed too far to drive to Fier and back to Gjrio on a P-Day), doing a super exchange with Fier again haha which was sick, driving up to Lushnje, staying there Tuesday night, going to zone conference all together, doing a super exchange with Lushnje Wednesday evening, staying the night again, and finally returning all the way to Gjirokaster Thursday afternoon. It was pretty fun but I definitely missed my good ol Gjiro. As far as I've experienced, there is no area like it and it has honestly become what I consider to be home. It's definitely gonna be hard to leave this place haha so hopefully it won't happen for a little bit.

On that thought, last week I said there might be a chance that I leave Gjiro next week. I have now decided that the odds of that are pretty much 0 because I don't even think we are having transfers for another couple weeks after that. We should be completely good for a bit which is super nice because now I can just work to set Gjirokaster up for some major success after I leave. My plan is just to pound through old contacts and do as much finding as possible while simultaneously continuing the meet with the friends we do have. It's gonna be hard but I'm going to make it happen because Gjiro deserves some really good pune going down. 

The highlight of the week was definitely zone conference. It was exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. I've definitely been having a much less productive/negative mindset as of late and zone conference was a good wakeup call. We have had some really really good days since then so clearly I'm doing better than I was. A lot of topics were covered in zone conference, but what stuck out to me the most was the concept of love and service. Specifically, I felt so strongly that the solution to all of my worries and struggles as a missionary would be solved by love and service, no matter what the issue was or if it was correlated at all. It's so interesting too because I don't even think the topic itself was covered very much at all, but I have felt so impressed to truly change the way I have been living out here. I've felt close to all of the missionaries out here and I can genuinely say I love all of them deeply, but I realized that specifically in regards to my companion, I haven't been doing a great job of showing that love. Since then I have been trying to find every way possible to get up in the morning and just serve. I've discovered as well that it is kinda hard to find things when we personally don't own a whole lot of stuff and don't do a whole lot of things in our house... Haha BUT I have still managed to find little small ways to serve. I've been doing all the dishes constantly, cleaning, making great breakfasts (I am a straight up gourmet chef sometimes I'm telling you), letting my companion buy and eat tons of ice cream even though it's not in season and makes no sense, making his bed, letting him shower first, etc. They are all such small things and don't seem like they would make that much of a difference (and maybe they don't from a certain point of view) but I FEEL so different. I feel so much more content and fulfilled. I can feel that my companion and I are closer even just in these few days and what's most amazing of all, is that I feel like we are getting more work done and having more success as missionaries. That last one has no direct link to my random acts of service in the morning but somehow they have still affected it. I'm not sure how and I'm not really sure why, but I can now firmly declare that every single aspect of life is positively affected if you simply decide to start looking for ways to selflessly serve.

So, if you read all of that and you actually followed what I said, my challenge for you is this: Choose one person in your life that you interact with regularly. It could be a family member, a friend, or a random teacher in school. This week, go out of your way to try and serve them more than ever before. Sit down for 2 minutes and just write out a bunch of little acts of service you can do, and then do them. NEXT WEEK report back to me how you feel and how you think it has affected you. I expect at least 5 reports to come in and I am positive there are at least 5 of you who read these hahaha so do it. If you have read this it is now a personal request from me to you. It. Is. Awesome.

Quick unrelated note before I close: Pday was very fun. We have the Korça Elders with us right now because Elder Basham had to come back to gjiro to get his documents since the cops took them after the wreck. Just meant that us bois got to explore the castle in the freezing rain.

Okay sick I don't think I succeeded in making this email more interesting than the last one. Maybe you regret reading this now because you'll feel guilty not accepting my personal challenge for you. If that's the case the best I can do is say that I'm sorry I'm not actually sorry for trying to encourage you to grow (because we all need to) and that I've got some great pictures for this week which you can view below. Jave te mbare! Ju dua shume miqte e mi!

Photos

Servants of the Vineyard

It blows my mind that I'm already writing to all of you guys again. Time is flying by way too fast. President has told me too that he might take me out of Gjiro this next transfer (2 weeks) so we will see what happens there. My time in Gjiro has been so long yet so short all at once. A very strange feeling for sure that only those who have served missions can truly relate to. Let's get to it though shall we?

Highlights of the week:

Picked a ton of olives and tried tasting a raw one (don't recommend it)

Had a super exchange in Fier

Went to Saranda again woooo

Had some great English Course lessons!

Made a new friend and she came to church lets goooo

The language is still frustrating as frick

Met with a murderer

etj

To get started on all of that, Wednesday we stayed the night up in Fier with the Elders there and had an awesome exchange. On this exchange, I learned the glories of olive picking. Lowkey I really enjoyed it and it feels very good to just do some genuine service for a member for a change. Anyways, the day after that we all went to Vlore for another service project (guess what) picking olives. With the accumulated 5 hours or so of picking I'm starting to feel like I actually know my stuff. To make things even better, we are actually going to be picking olives for the same person again tomorrow morning haha. Super great and I am excited believe it or not. 

Okay some short story time now. I think I've mentioned how Elder Cannon and I have been attempting to revive the English Course in the area and how last week, we were successful in doing so. Well, turns out it was a true revival because we met with this lady another two times this last week for English course, and each time we were able to share a great spiritual thought afterwards. On Friday night, after our lesson, we were able to share a little bit about the restoration. We ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and inviting her to church on Sunday. Well, as it would turn at, she totally came yesterday! The unfortunate side of that is that everyone else decided to bail on us yesterday so she was the only one there... Kinda awkward for a first-timer to show up and just have us there haha. But, she had met our member Dritan a couple days before so she was pretty understanding of it. We were able to have a great discussion explaining what the sacrament was, do the ordinance, sing some hymns together with just the 3 of us, and then we had a full restoration lesson with her there in the church building. It was super awesome and she said she'd like to come back again! We are also continuing English course with her so we will for sure be seeing her a bunch. After she left the building, my companion and I just lost it. We were so grateful and so excited to have been a part of that miracle and we just hope to be able to continue to see it unfold. 

So the murderer thing is kinda fun. On Tuesday we were wandering the city talking to people as you do in our secluded area, and we ran into this old man carrying bags up a hill. I offered to help him with the bags, but he said he was good because he was so close to his home. He then, in typical friendly Xhaxhi Albanian fashion, asked us where we were from. After talking to him for a while, he asked us if we would like to come sit down with him in his home and have a drink and just visit. We of course, with nothing else on our schedule, accepted and followed this guy back to his house. We sat down and talked to him, drank some peach juice, talked to this other young guy who lived on the second floor of this guy's house, and had a good typical discussion with this guy as you would expect from an 80 year old (or maybe older?) dude who lived through communism. After maybe about 15 minutes of being there, this guy's son walks into the room incredibly concerned. He started talking to his dad asking what the heck we were doing there and what he was doing with us. Our old guy explained that we were American and he wanted to visit with us and do some good ol muhabet (small talk). The son then told us we needed to leave immediately and that it was dangerous. A little confused, I started standing up asking for clarification, and all he said was "hajdeni! Eshte e rrezikshme! Tani!". Very interesting for us. Anyways, as we were leaving I was asking the son what was wrong, and he told us that we should never come back and that his father had killed his mother and had been in prison quite a while. A little surprising to be sure haha but we thanked him and we went on our way. Definitely one of the weirder interactions I've had since getting here.

As of right now, I am actually in Fier again. We won't be in Gjirokaster again until Thursday because we have gotten some new travel rules that keeps us from traveling too long or at night so we are staying here in Fier tonight, doing that service project in Vlore tomorrow, and then staying in Lushnje tomorrow night before zone conference. It's definitely gonna be a good week and it's always exciting to get to stay the night with other Elders. 

Alright I love you guys! Do flasim javen tjeter! Cauuu

Photos

The Return of the Pomegranate

Pershenfrikindetje shoket e mia. Eshte nje kenaqesi tju shkruaj prap kjo jave. Ka qene nje jave shume e mire. The chromebook I'm writing this email on doesn't have an easily accessible umlaut option so there is possibility that google translate won't be able to help you guys out here. Sorry but I'm pak lazy sometimes. Actually, I have met a grand total of 1 Albanian that actually texts using the c tails and e umlauts so you guys are getting a little taste of what I see every day in my online interactions. Super qejf we love it. 

This week was bomb. Elder Cannon and I actually have low-key been having a hard time. If you haven't read any of my past emails, just know that we are serving in a hard area with not a lot going on. It's hard to stay motivated at times when you can't even seem to make a single teaching appointment in a week. We are constantly trying to find new people to teach and doing our absolute best to help our 3 members out as well. Because of this, we try very, very hard to stay busy and to fill our schedule. One of the main things that has been hit hard here in the past is English Course. It is a great way of contacting and giving to the community (not to mention people think we're saints for doing it) AND it gives us something to do which is bomb. Well anyways, basically since I got here our English course has been dead in the water. So, this week we took a table out in front of the church, had a white board qe tha: "KURS ANGLISHT PRIVAT FALAS! HAJDE DHE REGJISTROHU - JEMI AMERIKAN NA NDIHMO ME GJUHEN SHQIPE", some good old Libra te Mormonit, pamphlets, flyers, and a course registry. We spent about an hour just sitting at this table talking to people as they walked by, and we got quite a few numbers! Not to mention we gave out a Book of Mormon and even more flyers for English course. Because of this sole event, English Course is back in business. We've got two ladies in their 50's that are now coming and we have a couple more people from the old registry that I called as well that may (or may not) come which is way more promising than before so we are hyped! We were able to teach 3 english lessons this last week which was so nice for the two of us. Super hype.

Miracle moment time if you're ready for it: Wednesday night we had a couple senior missionaries come down to Gjirokaster and we had dinner with them. On our way back down after dinner, we stopped at this restaurant and talked to this old guy who runs the restaurant because we're pals. He started talking to us a bunch about the usual (wow you know albanian so good you cuna are so great god bless you yay) which was super great. It was already a very enjoyable conversation because I love it when I can understand what is being said and actually respond well. Anyways, while we were talking to this guy, this girl walks out of the restaurant and starts observing our conversation. Eventually she interjects and asks where we're from, and once she found out we were American she started talking to us in perfect English. She was blown away that I (having 3 months in this country) and my companion (having 3 weeks in this country) could be speaking the language as well as we were. She began talking to us with this old guy about what we were doing there, where our church was, and some other really great encouraging stuff to be having in a conversation as a missionary with a stranger on the street. We had an awesome conversation, but, it was late and I was worried about getting back to our apartment because I was tired and it was pretty far, and to my great regret, I didn't grab this ladies contact info before we left. The next day, I couldn't stop thinking about how I neglected to get her info, and so we resolved to go back up to the pazar for some street finding later and to try and find her again. However, not too long after, we get a text from one of the senior missionaries that we had had dinner with the night before. She told us she met a young woman in the pazar who had talked with 2 American kids the night before who were *completely fluent*(?) in Albanian (gotta pat myself on the back there a little bit. Self love you know) and that she wanted us to contact her. She sent us this girls Facebook and we have since been in contact with her over messenger. She lives in Saranda and wants to meet us whenever we head back over there. Super hype! A good reminder to me that God's work is going to move forward even when a dumb teenager neglects to grab contact info. Grateful for that for sure.

Other than that things are great. The title unfortunately for all of you guys is kinda a let down. All I have to say for it is that I decided I wanted to try biting into a pomegranate like an apple (because lowkey they're just as common as apples out here if not more) so I've got a video you guys can all enjoy there if you'd like. 

P-Day was also super sick. We went up to Zvernec again and checked out a sick monastery on an island. Very bukur and very fun. I also did yoga on a log post out on the water. Enjoy the pictures!

Jave te mbare my good men and women of the world. Hurrah for pasta and all things delicious in life!

Photos

Literal Bomb Pomegranate Juice

 I'll get right to the point with that title because I know some of you are impatient. After district council on Wednesday, Elder Qose and I walked into the kitchen of the Fier church while waiting for the STL's and ZL's to finish their important convo so we could go to lunch. There was a bottle of pomegranate juice chilling on the table that had been there since Sunday. Elder Qose was going to throw it away, but I asked if I could have it because I was curious and it couldn't be that bad if it'd only been a few days. Well, as soon as I started turning the cap on this thing, it straight up exploded with more force than I've ever experienced from a plastic bottle. Fermented pomegranate juice went a solid 4 or 5 feet in the air and the bottle cap was turned into a deadly plastic projectile which shot directly into my right eye. I'm sure this would've been very comedic for me if I could've felt my eye afterwards. Everything was numb and I couldn't see, and to add to my panic Elder Qose's reaction was not good when I pulled my hand away from my eye. For about 2 seconds I wondered if I even had an eye anymore which was a really nice thought to have if you can imagine. Since there was basically a gunshot in the building, the other missionaries rushed in to see what happened and help which was fun haha. I ended up washing my eye out in filtered water and holding a carton of ice cream over my eye as an icepack. Picture included for all of your enjoyment. Anyways, after talking to the mission nurse and doing everything I was supposed to do, I was told just to rest my eyes and take some tylenol. I had a good headache for a couple days, but my eyesight came back after a few hours so we're good now haha. Surprisingly enough, I didn't get a black eye. My eyelid is definitely bruised, but things worked out well there. I'll have to cross getting a black eye off of my bucket list later. 

Anyways, this week was fire, even with getting shot in the face. The day after that, we had a bomb day in Saranda where we were able to meet with two referrals, have a great lesson with one of them, and then we ran into members from Utah there on vacation! The odds of such an encounter were so incredibly low seeing as we're only in Saranda every few weeks if even that. We had just finished eating some good ol sandwiches we brought from Gjirokaster, when we heard some friendly English voices from behind us. They were so shocked, surprised, and clearly excited to see us because they immediately offered to take us to dinner. We took them up on that offer a couple hours later after we had met with our other homie. A successful day for sure.

I have been pretty amazed with how things have been going with the language. My greatest struggle right now is still understanding the natives, but when I need to, I seem to just pick up what people are saying. Even when I don't understand fully what they're saying, I just open my mouth and the words seem to just flow. I'm incredibly grateful. What's even more evidence to me that the gift of tongues is the cause of this, is that when I leave our area, it is so much harder for me to use my Albanian. Super grateful for all I've learned so far too. I think if you guys back home were to observe me speaking to the natives, you'd think I was fluent, but the natives and other missionaries can definitely still tell I'm faking it till I make it still hahaha. 

Another hype event of the week was Tuesday. The ZL's came down for a super exchange down here in Gjiro, and what was even better about that is that both of the zone leaders have served here. We were able to have some good talks about the people in the area and what is best to focus on in an area that needs so much attention. It was also just super nice to have the company because it can and does get a little lonely down here with just the two of us at times. I have gotten pretty used to the isolation though, so it'll be pretty whacked up when I get moved out of here. That should still be a ways off though so I'll enjoy this great area while I have it. I don't have any other areas to compare it to as of yet, but with what I've observed and heard, Gjirokaster definitely competes for the spot of the best area. 

Elder Cannon is also doing super well. He's honestly pushing me to improve my Albanian so much as well. Once he starts understanding the people around us more, I think he'll catch right up to me in his language abilities. He's literally got 100's of flashcards on our kitchen table that he goes through every day. It's pretty inspiring to see him work so hard at the vocab and I bet if I had done the same thing back in my training, I would understand a lot more today. 

That's all I've got for you guys this week. Enjoy the pictures and have a hype week! Looking forward to hearing anything from any of you if any of you decide to email me :'( jk you're all great and honestly things have been going by so quick that at times it has taken be a week or two to even read the emails I have gotten haha. 

Love you all! Cau

Photos